As a Kaiju fan who has followed a series through its various incarnations, one of the more exciting aspects of watching an reboot of an established monster franchise is seeing some classic foes get a funky update like some weird version of Pimp My Kaiju. Be it the Americanization of Ghidorah, Mothra and Rodan in Godzilla: King Of The Monsters to the camp facelift Godzilla: Final Wars gave to 80% of Toho’s roster of creatures, there’s nothing more a Kaiju loves than a cool revamp.
This brings us to Gamera: Rebirth, which so far has been doing a bang up job giving us trimmed-down and sleeked up versions of five of our heroes most outlandish foes. In fact, the creature design for Netflix’s anime series has probably been one of the most satisfying aspects so far for the simple reason that the look of Gamera’s foes in general are as crazier as a shit house rat – and craziest of all, is Guiron.
After repeated assaults from frenzied, flesh eating Kaiju, our human cast is finding that their dynamic is in a state of disarray. Not only is Alex Tazaki’s nerves in pieces and Brody hasn’t stopped staring at Junich since he discovered that she’s a girl since the Zigra attack, but Joe’s overprotective treatment of Boco has finally reached its boiling point. Joe, between moments of continuing seasickness, is terrified that Boco’s complete lack of fear, combined with his diminutive stature, is a recipe for disaster while his friend is sick of being coddled and protected by the older boy – especially when they have Gamera the giant turtle around to whup some monster butt. However, with every new battle, the shelled protector seems to be taking more and more damage, weathering stabbing spikes, slicing sonic screams and rending claws in order to finally bring his attackers down.
However, the newest Kaiju to square up to the Guardian of the Universe, may be the toughest to beat of them, all as a lightning-fast beastie named Guiron enters the fray and starts carving up the Eustace mining facility that our leads are currently residing in. Essentially a giant, living samurai sword with a springy spine that allows him to deliver devastating chops Guiron isn’t an adversary to be sneezed at, but lurking under the mining facility is the mummified remains of yet another Kaiju, the squid-like Viras. It’s the very presence of this fifth creature that raises some concerns about the nature of the game that Eustace seems to be playing and whether they’re actually as benign as they’ve been letting on.
As Gamera arrives and finds that Guiron isn’t exactly going to be a pushover, Boco, Joe, Junichi and Brody end up in the cave that contains Viras husk and discover that someone has left the Orylium crystal in the vincity of the desiccated creature. As Gamera realises he’s brought a shell to a knife fight and the kids activate a hologram from the crystal, it seems that Eustace’s true plans are about to laid bare.
To follow up my points about updated Kaiju designs from the top of the review, the redesign I was most eagerly waiting for was Guiron as his original design is quite possibly the most bonkers of them all. Essentially a scowling brute with a giant knife for a head and the ability to shoot throwing stars out if his nostrils, I couldn’t help but instantly fall in love with the goofy looking – yet utterly lethal – bastard and his glow up certainly doesn’t disappoint. Reinventing him as a bizarre being that makes Guillermo Del Toro’s exotic Pacific Rim efforts look positively pedestrian in comparison, he flips about the place like a thing possesed, his flexible body sproinging with kinetic energy as he shoots razor sharp bits of his vertebrae down his back and off his bladed nose like some sort of Cronenbergian rail gun. Frankly, he’s fucking gorgeous and his knock-down-drag-out brawl with Gamera stands as the best so far. The drama is heightened significantly by the fact that the heroic turtle seems to be losing a step after three back to back defences of the heavyweight championship of the earth and the wounds he’s receiving a becoming noticably more severe.
The fact that Gamera is now unable to roll over his foes like a fireball gobbing juggernaut adds some much needed drama to the fact that the turtle is still lacking some necessary back story, although whoever’s thought to make his classic, spinning mode of flight reworked into a devastating finishing move deserves a goddamn raise.
Elsewhere, the human drama continues to impress and now it’s Joe and Tazaki’s turn to bask in the spotlight as their emotions take centre stage with the latter on the verge of quitting his place at the Eustace Foundation due to the incredible stress that comes with dodging Kaiju attacks. Essentially admitting to Emiko that he’s not exactly thrilled about babysitting the four kids either, we find out that he’s only in this line of work in order to impress his father and it adds a nice line of poignancy to a sub-plot that could have just been thrown away for cheap laughs.
However, while Tazaki’s stress levels provide some layered storytelling, the revealed reason why Joe is so protective of little Boco takes the show further into Stand By Me territory than ever before. It turns out that Joe had a younger brother named Toru who died the same time as his mother and ever since he first spotted Boco being teased, he’s made his friend almost into a surrogate brother that he had to watch out, no matter what – however, Boco’s foolhardy attitude and the belief that Gamera will swoop in to save them bo matter what causes anxiety in his friend that no longer can be contained. Once again, I have to commend Gamera: Rebirth’s writers for giving us three dimentional characters that have lives, feelings and thoughts that are separate to all the monster stuff and anyone else would be wise to take a page from their book.
KILL genuinely feels like the show is about to hit a massive U-turn with Gamera horribly wounded (run through and missing an arm is hardly 100%), Boco showing a physical reaction to the turtle’s wounds and the Orylium Crystal giving up Eustace’s secrets like a glowing, blue stool pigeon, the next episode is bound to unleash far more than a malevolent, mutant, octopus. But as it stands, this fourth episode might be the best so far.
Knife to meet you again, Guiron.
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